Seeds of Inspiration

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. ~Voltaire

Do you ever get your writing inspiration from food? I've been thinking about apples a lot lately, as well as cooking with them, and they are playing a part in a new book I am developing. I find cooking to be a relaxing therapy when I'm 'stuck' in a particular part of a project I'm working on. Somehow, the act of measuring, mixing, etc., seems to act as a 'therapy', if you will, and I can continue with my work in progress.

Goodbye

Tony Hillerman, author of the Leaphorn and Chee mysteries, born May 27, 1925, in Sacred Heart, Okla., population 50, passed away yesterday in Arizona. He had been in declining health for several years, but still loved to write.

I've always enjoyed seeing interviews of Mr. Hillerman. He was a very down-to-earth type man and very modest about his success, always giving any ideas for inspiration to those he felt it was due.

More than just a mystery novelist, he was a decorated combat veteran of WWII, a journalist, and devoted husband and father.

Goodbye, Mr. Hillerman. Thank you for you contribution to the mystery world. You will never be forgotten by your fans!

New To Me

The concept of 'republishing' a book from the POV of a certain character in the story is totally new to me. I read this article yesterday on romancing the blog . It was recently submitted by Brenda Coulter, romance author.

As a writer, I have to admit that it is an interesting concept, but as a reader~I'm not sure I'd be interested in seeing the story 're-hashed'.

Have you ever read one of these novels? Did you enjoy it? As a writer what do you think about the concept of doing this to your own novels?

Writing Thoughts

I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this. ~Cormac McCarthy~

Writing is its own reward. ~Henry Miller~

Writing is the hardest way of earning a living, with the possible exception of wrestling alligators. ~Olin Miller ~

Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being. ~A. A. Milne~

Ideas

"The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes."
— Agatha Christie

Like Agatha, I get a lot of ideas when I'm 'doing the dishes'. Of course, with wet, soapy hands, it's a little hard to write them down!

When do you get your best ideas?

Dialogue

If you write fiction of any type, you have to write dialogue. I was surprised to learn that a lot of authors find this the most difficult part of writing.

It has always been my favorite part of writing a novel. When I am writing, there are constant conversations going on inside of my head and I seem to have trouble inserting the descriptions in between them! I'm not saying that my conversations always 'work'. I do many, many re-writes.

In surfing the Internet for writing advice, I came across the concept of recording your dialogue and then playing it back to yourself. Have any of you ever done this? Did you find it effective?

Contest Deadline. . .Just Ahead

The deadline for the Tony Hillerman short story contest is coming up quick! Here is a link with the guidelines, if you still want to enter:

http://www.wordharvest.com/index.php/contests/shortstory

Me? I'm still working on my entry, and hope to have it polished up in time.